if you're going to go through hell, i
suggest you come back learning something.

"And I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time. That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry and talking to animals. That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered. But most of all, I learned that life is about sitting on benches next to ancient creeks with my hand on her knee and sometimes, on good days, for falling in love."

"In time, the hurt began to fade and it was easier to just let it go. At least I thought it was. But in every boy I met in the next few years, I found myself looking for you, and when the feelings got too strong, I'd write you another letter. But I never sent them for fear of what I might find. By then, you'd gone on with your life and I didn't want to think about you loving someone else. I wanted to remember us like we were that summer. I didn't ever want to lose that."
— Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)

After the funeral, my grandfather hugged me. And I’ll never forget what he said. He told me that he had just lost the love of his life, the most important thing in the world to him, and that it hurt like hell. He said he probably wouldn't ever be the same. But then he looked me straight in the eyes; he said that his time with her was something he would never trade, that it was the only thing worth living for. He told me to find that. He told me that once I had that, nothing else would be as important. And he said once I found it, to cherish it and never let it go.